It was summer of 2005 when I wrote my first story for NPR’s Kitchen Window, a then-brand-new series on the NPR website. It was my first time working with NPR in any capacity, and I was beyond thrilled.

Next month, the series will conclude. This story, about the sous vide revolution lapping at the thresholds of home kitchens, will be my last Kitchen Window contribution. My first piece, Garden in a Glass, was a nostalgic reverie about the medieval art of herbal concoctions. It seems somehow fitting that my last should be such a modernist, future-forward piece, complete with thermocouples and vacuum sealers. We’ve come a long way in 9 years, both the food world and I.

NPR continues to provide excellent food coverage through The Salt blog, especially when it comes to food science, food sourcing, and food trends. But I hope that NPR will someday once again have a place for the thoughtful rumination on food – the essay that takes us out of time and place and into a moment of pure sensibility.

As the immortal M.F.K. Fisher once wrote, “When I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it…” We live in a world frantic for connection, and sometimes it’s only food – primal, comforting, sustaining – that has the power to stop us in our tracks; to taste, to remember, to feel.

This story features a pork belly recipe from Nathan Myhrvold’s and Maxime Bilet’s Modernist Cuisine at Home. You can read more about this book – and over 250 other cookbooks worth getting or giving – on my cookbook-rating app, Cookbook Finder. Available for both iPhone/iPadand Android devices and updated regularly.

Sure, I like eating oranges by themselves. But there’s just something about the taste of orange as a flavoring in other dishes that I can’t get enough of. Orange zest, dried tangerine peel, clementine juice – as far as I’m concerned, they’re simply most adorable when they’re hiding in plain sight.

The couscous recipe from Kathy Brennan and Caroline Campion’s Keepersis featured in this story. You can read more about this book – and over 250+ cookbooks worth giving this holiday! – on my cookbook-rating app, Cookbook Finder. Available for both iPhone/iPadand Android devices and updated regularly.

I make cookies at the slightest provocation – Christmas, Easter, assorted birthdays. But of all the cookie seasons in the year, it’s Valentine’s Day I love the best. It’s an excuse for my daughter and me to spend a day playing with icing – dotting, stippling, marbling and brushing gingerbread hearts into edible works of art.

The gingerbread cookie recipe from Cooks’ Illustrated‘s The New Best Recipeis featured in this story. You can read more about this book – and over 250+ cookbooks worth giving this holiday! – on my cookbook-rating app, Cookbook Finder. Available for both iPhone/iPadand Android devices and updated regularly.

Recipes from pastry chef Gina DePalma’s Dolce Italiano and my neighbor DéDé Wilson’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies are featured in this story. You can read more about those books – and over 250+ cookbooks worth giving this holiday! – on my cookbook-rating app, Cookbook Finder. Available for both iPhone/iPadand Android devices and updated regularly.

Recipes from Gourmet Today and Plenty are featured in this story. You can read more about those books – and over 250+ cookbooks worth giving this holiday! – on my cookbook-rating app, CookShelf. Available for both iPhone/iPadand Android devices and updated regularly.

August means tomato heaven, out there on the farmstands, in the gardens, and at your local farmers’ market. And because it’s finally cooling down, you might not even mind turning on the oven to roast a few. Here’s how–trust me, it’s worth it.

My garden’s a mess this year, due to serious slacking during the endless rains of June. But I still kept a watchful eye on the garlic bed, because I had a deadline and the garlic needed to coöperate.

The garlic was perfectly healthy – vigorous, green, and inarguably well-irrigated. But where were the scapes? “C’mon!” I exhorted. “Let’s get a move on! I’ve got a story to write!”

Scapes are funny. As far as I can tell, they’re not there, and then they’re there. I went out one humid afternoon close to deadline and there they were – dozens and dozens, lining up in scapey curlicues. I marched into the cool house and e-mailed my editor. The deadline, I declared, was safe.

Flowers are nice. Perfume is nice. But rhubarb-ginger fool is even better.(Even if you had to make it yourself.)

Actually, it’s not called “Mom’s Secret Stash” – that’s just what I call it. The story has a more NPR-appropriate title: “Try a Do-It-Yourself Mothers’ Day” . The idea here is that sometimes the best person to come up with a delicious treat for Mom on her special day is…Mom. I’m not saying you shouldn’t accept, enjoy, and appreciate the pancakes in bed, the crayon cards, the champagne at brunch – if you are so lucky as to get those. I’m just pointing out that there’s no harm in doing a little bit of the spoiling yourself.